SanstaleIt's A Story
by shobob
Summary: After Sans gains the ability to SAVE and RESET from Chara he attempts to get the happy ending for everyone whilst preventing Chara from destroying all timelines. He embarks on a world twisting adventure that will change the way he understands reality.
1. Chapter 1

"it's a beautiful day outside. birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on days like these"  
"Sans, stop." Frisk said.  
"Kids like you."  
"Sans!" Frisk shouted  
Sans stopped and looked at them. The expression they wore...  
"What is it kid, I was planning on making this quick." Sans said shortly.  
"This will be the twentieth time I've killed you." Frisk said with a huge grin.  
"That's it.." Sans left eye shone brightly.  
Frisk was flung to the floor, still smiling. Bones flew and they dodged every one. Gasterblasters surrounded them and fired only to miss.  
"huh. always wondered why people never use their strongest attack first" Sans shrugged.  
"Sans I'm tired of this."  
"You're tired?" Sans asked "We've just started."  
More bones flew, and again, Frisk dodged every single one.  
"You know what I mean Sans."  
Sans didn't answer. He thought of Papyrus.  
Teal bones flew out followed by smaller white ones. Frisk moved with expert precision. You could really tell they'd done this a lot.  
"I mean the resets."  
"our reports showed timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting... that's your fault isn't it?"  
"Yes." Frisk said flatly.  
Sans looked through them. "You have some kind of special power... Don't you think you have a responsibility to do the right thing?"  
"Yes."  
"Then why did you kill my brother? Why did you kill everyone?"  
Frisk looked at the ground. "It's all... just a game... to them."  
"What are you talking about? To who?"  
"Sans if I keep resetting, even if i go without killing anyone... they'll just reset again... or destroy the world... Sans I can't stop them."  
"Just reset. Don't kill anyone, and leave. Never come back."  
"It doesn't work like that, Sans! I don't know why I can tell you this. Every other time... I just kill you, or you kill me... But this time is different. We have to stop them!"  
Sans let out a deep sigh...  
"How?"  
"If I reset again.. they'll still be there... but if someone else resets..."  
"then they won't?" Sans paused and thought "Will you be reset too?"  
"Erm... Probably... Look there's a lab in the hotlands-"  
"Ooh a lab, sounds fun. Have you seen my back shed?" Sans grin widened ever so slightly  
"Yes. There's a machine there that can drain determination. You have to use it on me."  
"You're kidding you want me to do it? You know I've tried something like this before... It didn't go very well."  
"It's the only way! Think about it Sans, you're already handling determination. Think about how determined you were to kill me just a few moments ago.  
I've fought you a lot lemme tell you, you flat out cheat. You twist reality and do things no other monster does. If anyone can do this, you can."  
Sans couldn't argue, his thoughts turned to his previous experiments... and their results...  
"I guess I don't have a choice. follow me" Sans said walking towards nowhere. "I know a shortcut."

Within moments they were deep within the true lab. Sans stared at the grotesque-looking machine in the middle of the room. Frisk was staring at it too, their expression filled with recognition and a deep sense of uneasiness.  
"what's wrong with you?" Sans asked  
"Nothing... it just reminds me of someone." Frisk said "Let's get on with it." Frisk pushed a button on a simple control panel and dashed infront of the machine.  
The machine's jaws clamped around Frisk. They didn't react. the "eyes" on the machine began to glow a dark faded red. A substance began to pour out of frisks eyes into the machine. Then it stopped.  
"Your turn."  
It was Sans' turn to feel uneasy, although to him it felt a little too much like caring. Whether it works or not, this world is a dead end anyway he thought.  
The jaws clamped. It wasn't uncomfortable. Sans stared deep into the dark eye holes of the machine as the began to glow a much mor vivid red than before. Suddenly they shone bright. There was a slight twinge in Sans' mind.  
And a sudden shock of pain.  
"You-" Sans stammered, red stuff began to pool out of his mouth. The jaws unclamped and Sans' turned to see a smiling frisk with a stained knife.  
"This is the only way to see if it's worked. You can't give up now Sans. Stay determined!"  
Sans vision began to fade, everything went black.

A pile of cold snow cascaded over Sans' head.  
"WAKE UP YOU LAZY BONES!"  
Sans found himself lying down by the side of his station in Snowdin  
"P-Papyrus..."  
"UNDYNE WILL BE MAD AT YOU IF SHE SEES YOU SLEEPING ON THE JOB AGAIN SANS! IT'S TIME FOR MY DAILY HUMAN HUNT. THIS TIME I'LL FIND ONE FOR SURE!"  
"Yeah, Papyrus I'm sure you will."  
"SANS MY AMAZING POWERS OF BROTHERLY EMPATHY TELL ME SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOU! DO YOU WANT TO TALK?"  
"Oh it's nothing." Sans thought to himself. "Actually... There's this woman in the ruins. She likes my jokes. I was just about to go see her. It sure must suck being stuck in those ruins."  
 _with whatever else could be in there_ Sans added in his mind.  
"YOU SHOULD GO SEE HER AT ONCE! DON'T WORRY BROTHER. I WILL COVER FOR YOU HERE! I'LL SEE YOU DOWN THERE LATER HUNTING FOR HUMANS"  
"i better go. see ya Papyrus."  
Sans took a shortcut. This was just before all this started... He'd gone to have a conversation with the woman at the ruins. She'd seemed incredibly anxious. She asked him if he remembered the promise he made. She said she wondered if he should keep it.  
After that it had gone quiet, and shortly afterwards Sans had heard quite a commotion. The human emerged from the ruins not long afterwards.  
He knocked on the ruins door.  
"Who's there?" A voice called out. Not what happened last time.  
"Are you okay? Did they hurt anyone?" Sans asked frantically.  
"I- erm... No. How did you know?" The voice answered, taken aback.  
"That doesn't matter." Sans said  
"I don't have much time anyway. Please, they want to leave the ruins! If they do, please watch over them. Make sure no one hurts them. You remember your promise?"  
Sans thought back to the corridor. Bones flew in his minds eye.  
"Yeah... I do. Don't worry , I'll watch over them." Sans said firmly.  
"I hear them coming now, I better go."  
Sans stepped over to the trees. Everything was back how it was before, and no one was dying this time! For now anyway.  
He tried to remember how he'd greeted Frisk before seeing them kill all of his friends.  
His fist curled. As it did a small flower grew out of the ground next to him.  
"they don't remember ANYTHING!"  
"What?"  
"you KNOW what I'm talking about! I heard you talking with Toriel, that's not how you usually act."  
Sans stared at the flowers bright yellow petals.  
"What's going on here, sunshine." He smirked.  
"Something funny is going on here. It's never happened like this before".  
The flower shot back into the ground. This must be the flower his brother's been talking to. No echo flower looks or sounds like that.  
He didn't know what the flower wanted with him, or his brother... But he felt like he gained more from that meeting than the flower. It filled him with.  
DETERMINATION.

The door to the ruins opened. A familiar figure exited. As they approached the bridge Sans crept up behind them.  
"I don't think I'd usually tell someone this right away. If it wasn't for the woman you just met. You'd be dead where you stand." Sans whispered into Frisk's ear menacingly.  
Frisk burst into tears. They ran past Sans and started hammering on the door the ruins calling out Toriel's name in tears.  
"ah... I could have done that better..." Sans said to himself. His vision began to fade.

He found himself by the trees. A familiar figure emerged from the ruins.  
Sans crept up behind them.  
"Human..." Sans said calmly. "Don't you know how to greet a new pal?"  
He paused and tried to remember.  
"Turn around and shake my hand."  
Frisk turned around slowly and held out a shakey arm.  
Sans grasped it gently and shook... then blushed a deep blue.  
 _I forgot the the whoopee cushion!_ he thought. He considered resetting.  
"heheheh, sorry 'bout that. Meant to play a little joke on ya. Forgot my whoopee cushion."  
"Oh.. Sorry." Frisk looked down.  
"No don't apologise it's my fault kid, I forgot. heheheh sorry to make things awkward."  
"It's okay!" Frisk smiled warmly. They looked completely different to before the reset. More naive, more innocent. Sans didn't believe this Frisk could hurt anybody.  
"anyways. You're a human right? That's hilarious. I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton. I'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now, but y'know I don't really care about catching anybody." Sans said grinning back  
"Now my brother, Papyrus, he's a human hunting FANATIC. He's just up here. Come hide behind this conveniently shaped lamp" Sans winked his right eye at Frisk.  
Frisk happily rushed over to the lamp and stood behind it. This was different too. He remembered how eerie it had been last time. Papyrus arrived and broke Sans' train of thought.  
Papyrus began to berate Sans. He smiled. He couldn't see Frisk right infront of him! Sans could barely stop himself from laughing.  
Several skeleton related puns later, Papyrus was on his way. Sans breathed out heavily. It had felt like such a long time since he'd irritated his brother with bad skeleton puns. His brother was alive. So was everyone else. He could begin to put what happened in the other world behind him.  
"Okay you can come out now" Sans called out to Frisk. "You better get going. He might come back. And if he does... You'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes."  
Frisk walked on ahead. Sans sat grinning to himself. He couldn't believe it.  
He took a shortcut to his bedroom in Snowdin. He was tired. Things seemed to be going fine. He needed a break from all this saving the world.  
He pushed the bundle of covers into the corner and sat leaning against it staring at at the tornado of trash in the corner. A familiar sensation came over him. He wondered if it was just the idea of slacking off that was familiar to him, from an altogether different kind of work.  
He smirked to himself. He'll always find the time for a break or two.  
It filled him with  
DETERMINATION.

Sans' door swung open and he woke up with a jolt.  
"SANS! THE HUMAN GOT PAST ALL MY PUZZLES! WHERE WERE YOU?!" Papyrus shouted  
"I had some very important stuff not to do."  
"THEY'RE IN SNOWDIN RIGHT NOW!"  
"Have they evacuated?"  
"WHAT? NO! OF COURSE NOT!"  
"then don't worry. Trust me on that."  
"SANS I AM GOING TO HAVE TO FIGHT THE HUMAN TO CAPTURE THEM!"  
"What?!" Sans was astounded. Papyrus didn't want to fight Frisk when they were murdering monsters left right and centre, but will fight an innocent child? Sans didn't know what to think  
"DO NOT WORRY BROTHER! I WON'T HURT THE HUMAN. I'LL CAPTURE THEM AND KEEP THEM IN OUR SHED!"  
"Good, that's great. Hold on a minute... that important stuff came up."  
Sans vision began to fade.  
He was back on his bed several hours before. He took a shortcut just outside Snowdin.  
Frisk was just arriving.  
Sans strolled up to them.  
"Tips for fighting my brother? Don't." He said before turning away. He quickly took a shortcut back to his room.  
He walked up to his dresser and took out a silver key, and went into the secret room behind the house.  
He stared at the broken machine in the corner. He struggled to remember.  
This wasn't the first time he'd messed around with time. A ghost of a memory came to him. Lying in his bedroom. Time travelling for a break. He could swear he'd done that before.

The only thing he could remember was breaking the machine. That he could remember clearly. He was filled with rage for some reason, and a deep sense of loss. He pictured it.  
" _You gotta learn when to quit!"_  
Bones flew at the machine.  
 _"And that day's today!"_  
The bones hit the machine with greater intensity.

Sans shook his head. Just like everything else, things were different this time. He didn't need a machine this time. though whether that made things better or worse remained to be seen.  
Papyrus would probably arrive soon. Sans went back up to his bedroom.  
He turned and sat on his bed facing the door. A moment later it opened and Papyrus rushed in.  
"SANS! THE HUMAN GOT PAST ALL MY PUZZLES! WHERE WERE YOU?!" Papyrus shouted.  
"Papyrus, listen to me. This may relate to the human and is very important. You mention you've been talking to a flower recently, right?"  
"YES. WHY?"  
"Is it a small flower with lovely bright sunshiney yellow petals?" Sans smirked.  
"YES. WHY?"  
"What did the flower tell you?"  
"IT SAID "If the human gets to new home without killing anyone, and befriends you, undyne, and alphys, call everyone and get them to come to the barrier." I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT MEANS BUT THEY TOLD ME TO KEEP IT SECRET SO DON'T TELL ANYONE.  
"well... don't tell them you told me."  
"I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN BE DISHONEST WITH THEM SANS. THEY'RE SO FRIENDLY!" Papyrus beamed at Sans.  
"you know what then... nevermind."  
Sans vision began to fade.

He was back several hours before. He let out a deep sigh. might as well have another nap.  
The door swung and Sans woke up with a jolt.  
"SANS! THE HUMAN GOT PAST-"  
"cool. Are you going to fight them then?" Sans said.  
"YES! I'M GOING TO CAPTURE THEM AND KEEP THEM IN OUR SHED!"  
"okay. You go do that." Sans said looking away. Resetting to play with his brother's memory had hurt him.  
he took a shortcut up ahead out of Snowdin. Frisk had already arrived, Papyrus was posing. Sans smiled. Neither of them were taking the battle seriously.  
Frisk expertly dodged swooping bones. Sans' insides tightened. He felt nauseated and began to sweat. He could see that corridor... that Frisk.  
He clenched his fist, he thought of Toriel's request to watch over this new Frisk and forced himself to look up. She was running towards a field of bones flying at her  
with a huge bone at the end, far too high to jump over. Sans' hand flung out, his left eye lit up. Raising his hand high Frisk rose higher and higher with it and until they cleared the bone.  
Sans' let out a sigh of relief. Papyrus was shouting about sparing the human.  
Everything was okay. He sat breathing deeply... Papyrus and Frisk had left.  
"SANS!"  
Or maybe not. Papyrus was right behind him.  
"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE AT YOUR STATION AT THE WATERFALL!"  
"Oh yeah I forgot about that."  
"YOU'VE BEEN ACTING WEIRD RECENTLY SANS! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH YOU!"  
Papyrus marched off in a huff. Sans took a shortcut to his station.  
He thought back... to the last time. He'd been explicitly ordered not to go to his stations. A full scale evacuation of the entire area had been ordered. Only Gersen and a single Temmie refused.  
Gersen didn't explain his reasoning, but it was said he knew how to look after himself. The Temmie had said she needed to raise funds for college. Although she had promised to try to rip the murderer off with an overpriced temmie flake.  
At that time it seemed like they could be stopped. Undyne was preparing to hunt them down... everyone was united. Thinking about it filled Sans with  
DETERMINATION.

Frisk arrived shortly afterwards.  
"Hey..." Sans said. "I appreciate what you did back there."  
"what? what did I do?"  
"nevermind. Do you know anything about a flower? Leaves so yellow you've got to squint?" Sans smirked.  
"Oh, you mean Flowey!" Frisk looked up smiling and then suddenly looked away.  
"Flowey... What did he say to you."  
"Well at first he was nice... but then he tried to hurt me, and Toriel stopped him. And I saw him again later... he was talking about saving and resets and i didn't understand.  
He got angry with me. He was shouting 'You don't remember anything do you!'. He kept calling me... someone elses name."  
"Did he say anything else?"  
"He said... if I can't reset... then I'd better not hurt anyone, or the whole underground may turn against me. I don't want to hurt anyone... but I keep getting attacked. They say they've sent a warrior to kill me. What can I do?"  
"Oh don't worry that's just Undyne." Sans said grinning  
"I don't want to hurt her." Frisked looked down  
"What makes you so certain you could?"  
Frisk smiled and didn't reply.  
"look I'll talk to her, okay?" Sans said tightly.  
"You don't have to do that." Frisk was still smiling. they were clutching a ballerina shoe tightly.  
"You'll be judged."  
"She's trying to kill me!"  
"You'll be killed."  
"That's something else Flowey said! Flowey said... In this world, it's kill or be killed. He asked me what do I do if I'm faced with a true killer? What would you do?"  
Sans stopped. His insides tightened again.  
"I thought you were different to them" he said flatly.  
"What?"  
"They're still there aren't they? The other one I mean."

"But you don't remember anything do you? You still can't reset? Neither of you can."  
"Sans... what are you talking about?"  
"I can do this one better. Let's try again."  
Sans vision began to fade.

Frisk arrived shortly afterwards.  
"What, haven't you seen a guy with two jobs before?" Sans said smirking.  
Frisk stared blankly.  
"Fortunately, two jobs means twice as many legally required breaks." Sans said widening his grin. "I'm going to grillby's. Wanna come?"  
A shortcut later they were there.  
Sans tried his best to make small talk. Frisk ordered burgers and Sans grabbed a bottle of ketchup.  
"So." Sans said. "What do you think of my brother? He's pretty cool right?"  
"Yeah he's cool" Frisk said.  
Sans smiled. "Of course he is."  
He took a sip of ketchup. "He really wants to join the royal guard... but Undyne won't let him. It's a shame. It's really one of my brothers best qualities... why they won't let him in..." Sans said pensively.  
"Why not?" Frisk asked  
"She says he's too soft. But that's one thing that's so cool about him. He'll always find a way not to hurt anybody." Sans fought back tears. "You should go hang out with him before you meet undyne. don't worry. She won't catch you. There's a boatman up ahead."  
"thanks! I will!" Frisk ran along happily.  
 _What would i do if face with a true killer?_ Sans thought.  
 _I have been faced with a true killer._  
 _I tried to kill them._  
I can't convince you not to fight undyne. But my brother can.  
Sans thought of how cool his brother is. It filled him with  
DETERMINATION.

Sans followed the sound of clunking armour, rounding a corner he saw a darkened figure holding a spear storming through the cave.  
"Undyne!" Sans called out.  
"What!? I'm busy hunting a human! You know how important this is Sans!" Undyne said impatiently without breaking stride.  
"this is about the human. Don't go all out on them, okay? they're... they're alright."  
"What do you mean they're alright!? This isn't about how nice they are Sans! Asgore needs SOULs."  
"If you hurt the human... We'll all have a bad time" Sans said.  
Undyne stopped and turned to Sans. "What do you mean."  
"I don't know how much i should tell you. If you hurt the kid.. it could lead to all timelines stopping."  
"Sans the old experiments are useless, Asgore has deemed Alphys' experiments top priority" Undyne snapped.  
"None of us know if the old experiments were useless do we? Because none of us can remember, and there's no one who can tell us. It's like huge parts of my memory, of my life! Gone! Imagine that Undyne, except it's EVERYTHING. It's all gone. That's what could happen... if the human kills you."  
"The human will not kill me, Sans." Undyne said proudly heightening her spear.  
"That's what I'm counting on." Sans grinned. They turned another corner onto some large wooden platforms, shadows were cast over from higher platforms. Sans had to watch his step.  
"The human will be here any second Sans, you better better be quick."  
"I've got a feeling... if nobody dies, something good happens. Don't kill them." Sans said, winking his left eye.  
"Okay... I'll go easy on them... at first... I'm trusting you." Undyne smiled.  
Sans grinned.

He took a shortcut back to his room. He found himself with very little to do. He heard barking outside. He picked up his trombone. His hobby recently has been plaguing Papyrus with incidental music. Sans popped his head round the door and gave the trombone a few toots. Frisk had come round to visit Papyrus. Sans smiled. Everything was going well. He sat back and cracked open a bottle of ketchup. He thought of his schedule for that day... he'd been supposed to attend his stations in the hotlands round about now. There was time for a little break though. He took a sip.  
A box of hotdogs meowed loudly from underneath his bed. He slid the box out and looked inside. A bunch of hot dogs and a single hotcat rolled around inside. He'd been meaning to find someone to try the hotcat, didn't quite trust it himself.  
He bundled the box into his pocket.  
He stood up slowly, time to go... sleep at his station in the hotlands.

Not long later he was being woken up by an angry Undyne  
"Sans wake up! Don't sleep on the job! The human is humiliating me they keep running!" Undyne snapped at him.  
"Well run after them then" Sans said and shut his eyes. Undyne couldn't go through the hotlands. Certainly not in that armour.  
Undyne snarled, turned and ran. Sans opened an eye. Undyne collapsed. On the other side of the bridge he saw a small figure approach a water cooler, and then dump a glass of water over Undyne.  
"that's nice" he remarked. Sans took his leave, he had no desire to be shouted at again. He had another station further in the hotlands Undyne rarely came past. She didn't like to use armour cooling mud. "Heroes should shine!" she'd say.  
Sans thought to before... Undyne had been the only other person with a chance of stopping the murderer. She fought past the point of death and valiantly saved a child from being murdered. Her strength and her sacrifice had touched Sans, perhaps it was part of what shook him out of inaction.  
Along with, y'know, along with all the timeline reports... He hadn't seen reports like that since after the previous experiments. Nothing back then had indicated and end to all timelines though... it was quite clear something had been lost.  
Monsters all across the underground had lost parts of their memory. Even Sans was affected. No one could remember who the royal scientist was, or if there'd even been one. Asgore's response had been quick. Alphys was immediately named Royal Scientist and it was suggested never to speak of the incident. It was the usual method for dealing with problems in the underground.

A small figure approaching broke Sans' train of thought. His insides began to tighten again.  
"hey kid. wanna buy a hotdog?" Sans said grinning.  
Frisk looked up at Sans smiling happily. They reached into their pocket and pulled out 35G  
Sans paused. He hadn't named a price yet.  
"Heh heh." He laughed. "this one should be purr-fect for ya"  
Sans flipped his box of hotdog open and handed the hot cat to Frisk. The hot cat began to meow quietly.  
"Can I have another?" Frisk asked.  
"I dunno if you could carry another" Sans said. "How about I just put it on your head?"  
Sans shakily placed a hotdog on Frisks head.  
"Another!" Frisk shouted  
Sans grabbed another hotdog and placed it ontop of the first one, beginning a neat stack.  
It continued for a while, till Sans saw the box was beginning to empty.  
Frisk was stood balancing 29 hotdogs and a hotcat on their head.  
"Another!" they called out.  
Sans burst out laughing  
"I can't even reach that high! 29 hotdogs is good enough for anyone." Sans said warmly.  
This Frisk had subverted his expectations on every occasion. Sans allowed himself to hope. Maybe there's a happy ending after all.  
Although... the reports...  
"The reports!" Sans spat out. How could he have overlooked them? He hadn't checked them in this timeline. Maybe they were different.  
"What?" Frisk said, looking confused.  
Sans didn't hear. He wasn't there. He'd taken a shortcut.

Sans tore into the room behind his house. Behind the broken machine in a small cabinet, another machine quietly whirred in darkness. He pushed a button, a sheet of paper began to emerged from a slot on the machine.  
"This doesn't make any sense..." he mumbled to himself.  
There was only one timeline shown, and it only went up to moment sans had pushed the button on the machine.  
The results suggested the anomaly was gone. But that can't be right, when he absorbed the determination, when he began resetting, he became the anomaly.  
Or an anomaly, anyway.  
He dug his phone out of his pocket.  
Dialling Alphys.  
No reply. Sans had expected that. He started writing a text.  
"have some results u really need 2 see.  
They don't make any sense to me.  
tb soon"  
Sans pressed the send button and froze. This was way out of his depth. His phone buzzed.

"1 new message, Alphys"  
"Hey sorry I'm kinda busy right now!  
bring them round later, I'll text you when ok?"

Sans sighed. At a loss, he practiced the long standing tradition of the underground.  
He ignored the problem.

Some time later, Sans sat glumly in MTT Hotel restaurant. Frisk had been through and entered the core. Alphys still hadn't text.  
He was waiting with everyone else for the elevators to get back up and running and had no desire to go into the core himself. The place creeped him out.  
It wasn't long now until Frisk reached... that corridor. Sans had no idea what would happen at all after that. Although everything had been different this time. Sans phone vibrated.

"1 new message, Alphys."  
"Hey i've changed my mind... don't come over.  
I want to be on my own for a while and I've something to be working on anyway  
don't worry everything is fine.  
I'll text you some other time, okay?"

Well that's that... it's doubtful she'd have anything to say about it anyway. A clunk rung throughout the building and the elevators began to move. It was time.

Frisk walked through down the long brightly lit corridor. Intricate patterns decorated the windows, with the Delta Rune inscribed in the centre.  
A beautiful orange light was streaming through the windows. Large ornate pillars lined the side of the corridor as Frisk stepped by each one.  
They came to the end of the corridor. And stepped out the door at the other end.

"Heya" Sans said as Frisk exited.  
Frisk jumped.  
"So you finally made it." Sans said "It's been a long journey. Soon you will meet the king. But now... you will be judged.  
"Sans" Frisk cut Sans off. Sweat began to form on Sans' forehead.  
"What?" Sans said firmly.  
"Thank you." Frisk said, and smiled warmly.  
Sans was speechless. Frisk began to slowly walk away.  
"By the way. Frisk. You didn't kill anyone." Sans called out.  
"I know." Frisk called back.  
Sans waited until he was out of sight and followed. He wanted to see how this ended.

As Frisk walked through the door to the barrier. Sans took a shortcut out sight. It didn't go well. Asgore had a friendly demeanor towards Frisk but ultimately forced combat. "You proud fool!" Sans thought.  
And so, Frisk was forced to kill Asgore.  
Then a flower came. And everything went black.

Sans woke up surrounded by darkness. Something was wrong. He tried to reset... nothing happened.  
"Why... are YOU here?" A voiced called out.  
A huge grotesque beast emerged from the shadows. Huge vines surrounded Sans locking behind him. An ugly bulky head with savage jaws lowered into view. It looked strangely familiar to Sans.  
"Why are YOU here" the voice repeated.  
"I have no idea. What the hell are you" Sans spoke up impatiently.  
"This is why you acted differently... This is why they don't remember anything. They can't reset anymore can they? You've stolen it from them, and now i've stolen it from you!"  
A hideous laugh echoed from all around Sans. A memory came to him. This was the flower that spoke to him outside the ruins. The one that'd been speaking to his brother.  
"I like your new look, yellow is a bad colour on you." Sans quipped.  
The beasts jaws opened. A huge beam burst from it's mouth. Sans screamed in the searing heat before burning into ashes.

Then he was back. Just fine, right back infront of beasts opening jaws. Sans gritted his teeth. A Gasterblaster swiveled out of nowhere blocking the beast's aim.  
And fired. An eldritch screech echoed out. Five more gasterblasters appeared. Just before they fired they disappeared. Sans lurched. He was back infront of the beasts opening jaws.  
A flurry of bones lodged themselves in the beasts mouth. Two more bones flew into the beast's eyes and another smashed the television screen above it's head.  
Once again Sans found himself before the beast's opening jaws, and once again he defended himself before it had the chance to strike.  
"YOU-" It called out in frustration. 7 hearts on the restored television screen and span until they flew right out of it.  
"THE SOULS!" the ghastly voice called out. The world began to shimmer. Sans found himself back infront of the barrier infront of a yellow flower crumpled on the floor and a stunned looking Frisk.  
The souls continued spinning overhead.  
"Kill me..." The flower mumbled, it's face in the dirt.  
Sans raised a foot high.  
"No!" Frisk called out, flinging themselves between Sans and the flower. "You can't!"  
"I'll kill you..." The flower whispered.  
Sans lowered his foot.  
The flower raised it's head and turned. "I'll kill EVERYONE."  
Frisk looked sternly at Sans and Sans did nothing.  
"Why? WHY?!" The flower screamed. It drew itself up. It seemed to have recovered from the battle.  
Frisk and Sans did nothing.  
The flower turned towards Sans looking him in the eyes. "Next time... they'll get a call from Undyne. Make sure they go.  
"What?" Sans asked.  
"You want a happy ending right?" The flower said smirking, before disappearing beneath the ground.  
Frisk turned towards Sans.  
"What does that mean?" they asked tugging at Sans' sleeve.  
Sans didn't hear. His vision was beginning to fade.


	2. Chapter 2

A pile of cold snow cascaded over Sans' head.  
"WAKE UP YOU LAZY BONES!" Papyrus shouted.  
"Why did I have to fall asleep here?" Sans snapped at nobody in particular.  
"BROTHER ARE YOU OKAY?" Papyrus looked concerned. Sans felt bad.  
"I'm fine... I need to speak to Alphys, right away. Meet you later for hunting humans?" Sans beamed at Papyrus.  
"OK! SEE YOU LATER!" Papyrus said striding off.  
Sans called Alphys. No answer. Some things never change. Better to text.

"Hey got some reports u really need to see.  
tb soon lemme know if ur not too busy"  
Sans pressed send. _Suppose I better actually get the reports from this timeline._ He thought. He took a shortcut to his shed and once again opened the cabinet containing the timeline report machine. The results were very similar to last time. They went all the way up to the moment the button was touched. But it was way too long. instead of appearing seperately or as a split... this timeline seemed to have been neatly added onto the first one. _Maybe this one is broken too_ Sans thought as he looked at the larger machine.

His phone vibrated.  
"1 new messaged, Alphys."  
"Hey I'm not too busy no! I'm watching this human they've just come out of the ruins!  
Come watch with me if you like. Bring reports with u Alphys~"

Sans shortcutted to the lab and knocked on the door. Alphys opened the door wearing her trademark white labcoat.  
"Hey Sans! Are you okay? How's Papyrus? How's the Snowdin dogs? You speak to them much?"  
"I'm good, he's good, i dunno, not really no. Alphys listen these timeline reports-"  
"Can't you study something useful Sans?" Alphys said exasperated  
"Just look at them. They're perfectly linear. Does this look right to you?" Sans shoved the papers into Alphys face. Alphys took the papers and studied them carefully.  
"Well I guess they're a little long. Aren't they supposed to be linear though?"  
"I don't know what they're supposed to look like but they've never looked like this. Do you remember me showing you them before?"  
"Yes they were splitting and running concurrently and all sorts. I think I remember telling you to stop playing with things if you don't remember how they work." Alphys said  
"Alphys! This isn't nothing. This is just important, if not more important than your research." Sans shook his head. He should have expected this much.  
"I think it's best we forget about these reports. We forgot everything else to do with it" Alphys said turning back into the lab.  
"Wait Alphys... has the human killed anyone?"  
"No." Alphys said without turning. The doors shut.

Sans walked slowly down the stairs near the lab. He needed some time to think for a second. He came to a river. He recognised it, it went all the way back to Snowdin.  
"Tra la la, I am the river man. Or am I the river woman? It doesn't really matter." A cloaked figure on a boat called out.  
"What?" Sans said  
"I love to ride in my boat. Would you like to join me?" The riverperson said.  
"Erm, sure, can you take me to snowdin?" Sans figured why not.  
The river person nodded, Sans got onto the boat and leant back.  
"So... you do this a lot?" Sans said. "I think I've seen you a-boat before" He smirked to himself.  
"Beware of the man who speaks in hands" The riverperson said  
"Eh?"  
"You don't remember them, do you?" The river person turned around eerily. The boat sailed on.  
"Remember who?" Sans asked.  
"He built the core. And he built what's yours." The river person replied.  
"What's mine? Do you mean the machines?" Sans stared with incredulity. Who was this guy?  
"Oh, we're here." The riverperson said. Sans stepped off the boat into fresh cold snow. "come again some time. tralala." The river person turned away from sans and looked far downstream as if in thought. Looks like it's back to the longstanding traditions of the underground. At least there's one problem that can be fixed.

Sans took a shortcut to the ruins and began hammering on the door. A voice answered  
"Sans is that you?" they said. they sounded like they had been crying.  
"You're Toriel aren't you? Asgore's ex-wife." Sans said.  
"How do you-"  
"Somebody mentioned your name to me in passing. Asgore is going to fight the human. There is no avoiding it unless you, unless we, do something." Sans said firmly.  
He heard sobbing from the other side of the door. "I couldn't even stop them from leaving! How can I stop them and Asgore from fighting?" Toriel cried.  
"come see him. The human will be there too. In a few hours or so. You'll know when to go." Sans said warmly. "You won't be alone."  
Sans heard the sobs beginning to quieten. Toriel didn't reply after that. Sans thought about Flowey's "prediction" to his brother. It was clear Flowey wanted everyone at the barrier when Frisk got there. Although as to why, Sans wasn't certain. There didn't seem to be many options though.

Frisk had probably reached Snowdin by now. Sans shortcutted to where he'd hid from Papyrus and Frisk's battle before. Frisk had just arrived.  
Papyrus was repeating pretty much ad verbatim what he'd said before, with a few complaints about Sans not turning up peppered here and there. Sans suppressed a giggle.  
Sans wasn't laughing once the bones started moving though. An entire world isn't enough to get over the trauma of being confronted by a mass murderer. Sans began to feel sick. He held on until the field of bones and huge bone appeared once again. His left eye lit and Frisk was carried high into the air over the bone. Again. Sans fell to his knees breathing heavily. The fight had ended, and Papyrus was leaving. Sans got up and walked out to Frisk.  
"Hey kid."  
"Hello?" Frisk said unsure.  
"I'm Sans, Papyrus' brother."  
"Oh he mentioned you! He said you're very funny!" Frisk smiled.  
"heh, well I usually am..." Sans said looking down, he was tired.  
"And you're very lazy!" Frisk laughed.  
"Heh, well, same to that." Sans said grinning.  
"By the way..." Frisk said turn away for a moment.  
"What?" Sans said, still grinning.  
Frisk turned back again, with an unnatural smile across their face. Sans had a flashback. Orange light filled his mind's eye.  
"What would happen if Omega Flowey and Sans had a fight?" They said.  
Sans was stunned.  
"Wh-who are you?" Sans stammered.  
Frisk's face changed. They looked like the innocent child Sans hadn't said goodbye to in the last world again. They smiled warmly, completely unlike before.  
"Go hang out with my brother before you leave, okay?" Sans said before walking away. He was getting creeped out.

Sans stomped through the waterfall at quite a pace. Once again everything _seemed_ to be going okay. But was not Frisk just then. That was... something else. Omega Flowey... that must have been the beast Flowey turned into. Not the name Sans would have picked. Something like "ugly pile of trash" seemed to suit them better. Why would Frisk, or whatever it was, ask that? To even know about "Omega Flowey" they'd have to remember the previous world. More questions occurred to Sans and more answered eluded him as he rounded a corner.

And slammed straight into Undyne. "Watch where you're going, I could have killed you!" Undyne snapped.  
Sans glared. "Undyne you can't hurt the human you've gotta make friends with them." He said quickly. Sans felt sick. He couldn't escape the feeling he was being played.  
"Why would I want to do that?!" Undyne said  
"Beats me." Sans said honestly.  
Undyne was glaring at Sans now. "Get out of the way" Undyne stepped around Sans. He turned and followed her.  
"Do you think I'd say so if it wasn't important?" Sans piped up  
"What's so important it'd mean making friends with our ticket out of the underground?" Undyne asked.  
"Aahhhh how did I do this last time?" Sans was frustrated. Undyne looked confused, then confusion gave way to horror.  
"Is this about... The experiments." Undyne said fearfully. "I'm gonna write a note to myself and if I forget anything it'll tell me to kick your ass."  
Sans laughed. "No no those experiments are done with. This is different. I'm sure of that." Sans said. He wasn't so sure if the difference was a good thing, though.  
"I don't wanna hear anymore." Undyne said shaking her head "I'll go easy on the kid if it'll make you and Papyrus happy, is that ok?"  
"Thanks Undyne" Sans said grinning.  
"You better be at your station in the Hotlands." She said quickening her pace. Sans stopped walking.  
"I couldn't FISH for a better friend" Sans called out after her. A spear flew back missing Sans by miles. He laughed.

There was quite a while before Judgement. It'd been a while since Sans had got to speak with Toriel and share some idle chatter. He headed back to the ruins door and knocked it.

There was quite a while before Judgement. It'd been a while since Sans had got to speak with Toriel and share some idle chatter. He headed back to the ruins door and knocked it.  
"Knock knock" He said.  
"Who's there?" Toriels voice called out.  
"Atish" Sans said smirking  
"Atish who?" Toriel said  
"Bless you!" Sans said  
Toriel giggled. "I think I've heard that one" she said  
"It's a classic" Sans replied. "How are you doing?"  
"I'm well." Toriel said. "How is the human?"  
"Oh they're doing fine. What have you been doing?" Sans asked.  
"Erm, I've been here by the door reading. I was hoping the human would come back." Torel said sadly.  
"Reading? What have you been reading? Any good?" Sans said. He didn't want to talk about Frisk right now.  
"Oh, it's a story. There's a lot of old story books in here. I've read all of them." Toriel said enthusiastically.  
"So how come you're reading them again?" Sans asked. He generally preferred joke books or books on science to fiction.  
"Because I enjoy the story! It doesn't matter whether you've read it before. When you're reading it the characters are alive, you can know for certain how the story goes and yet still convince yourself it might all happen differently. Sometimes I like to think what would happen if it did, and make my own stories up. I haven't written anything myself though... There'd be no one to read it anyway." Toriel explained.  
"why don't you tell me one of your stories?" Sans offered.  
"ohhh no! I'd be much too embarassed. I don't know if I can remember them anyway." Toriel laughed.  
"What are they generally about?" Sans probed genuinely interested.  
"Well usually I try to fix things in the story I didn't like, or made me sad. But it's kind of dull if you just do that. No good story is without conflict." Toriel went on.  
"Heh, conflict eh, so you mess with them?"  
"I guess so... Well I like to think of new situations for them, or expand on things I think the booked missed. Sometimes I just really miss the characters and like to imagine what they did next."  
"Sounds fun." Sans said.  
"It is" Toriel said happily.  
They continued talking for a long time. It was the most at ease Sans had felt since before any of this had started. She even unlocked the door for a moment and slipped a few books out for Sans to read. Eventually though, Toriel told Sans she was hungry, and went off to make something she called a "snail soufflé"

Sans went to MTT Hotel, he sat in the restaurant waiting for the clunk of the elevators. San phone started ringing. It was Undyne.  
"Tell your brother to get off the phone to the human!" Undyne shouted down the phone  
"BUT UNDYNE THEY NEED TO HEAR ABOUT THE HOTEL'S DOG PROBLEM" a familiar voiced in the background shouted.  
"What's WRONG with it?" Undyne asked.  
"EVERYTHING!"  
"Pass me over" Sans said, he heard shuffling. "Papyrus, let Undyne call the human, cmon it must be a miracle she even wants to."  
"OKAY!" Papyrus shouted in agreement. He hung up the phone.

The dog problem... That can only mean Frisk is at the hotel now. Sans stepped outside the restaurant to see Frisk standing there holding their phone to their ear.  
"Is that Undyne?" Sans asked walking over.  
Frisk nodded, then hung up. "She wants me to pick up and deliver a parcel. I'm pretty close to getting out of here though."  
"Have you... Have you seen Alphys?" Sans asked  
Frisked looked at the floor. "Yeah... She's pretty upset."  
Sans sighed. "You wanna go see Undyne then? Cmon, I know a shortcut." Sans said winking his right eye.

Sans lead and Frisk followed. They met Papyrus and Undyne in Snowdin, picked up the parcel, and took another shortcut straight to the lab. Frisk went inside and talked to Alphys, and then they left together heading towards the waterfall. Alphys was wearing a dress, Sans couldn't believe it. He sat down. Might as well wait he thought.

Not long later, Frisk came back and entered the lab. Sans followed They entered True Lab's doors together. The smell of wet earth was heavy in the air and it was hard to see by the dim light. Sans mind was racing. Him and Frisk walking together through this place... it was a very familiar setting and he didn't like it. At this point it was clear Frisk and Alphys were friends. He wasn't quite sure why he was still following. They continued together in silence until reaching the DT extraction machine.  
"It's that things head." Sans spluttered.  
Frisk turned their head. "Hm?" they made a questioning sound.  
"Nothing... It just reminds me of someone." Sans said tightly. "Listen, You've got this I'm gonna go..."

He left directly for the barrier and waited. Not long after Asgore entered, and then Frisk. Things happened exactly as before. Sans felt a bitter disappointment settle in his heart. Suddenly Sans heard a rush, and Asgore was knocked flying out of Frisk's path.  
"What a miserable creature, torturing a poor innocent youth." Toriel said softly.  
"T-Tori, you came back!" Asgore stuttered, his eyes wide in disbelief.  
"Don't Tori me, Dreemurr! You pathetic whelp" Toriel snapped. "If you really wanted to free our kind you could have gone through the barrier after you got ONE soul, taken six souls from the humans then come back and freed everyone peacefully."  
Sans stepped out laughing. He hadn't thought of that. "She's got a point, Asgore."  
"Is that you? From the ruins? I know your voice!" Toriel said rushing over to Sans excitedly.  
"Tori... You're right. I'm a miserable creature." Asgore said glumly. "Do you think we can at least be friends again?"  
Toriel sighed in exasperation. "No, Asgore." She said firmly.  
"Ngggaaah! Asgore! Human! Nobody fight each other!" Undyne came tearing into the room. "everyones gonna make friends or I'll-"  
"H-hey! Nobody hurt each other!" Alphys stepped meekly after Undyne.  
"HEY! NOBODY FIGHT ANYONE!" Papyrus shouted bounding in. "IF ANYONE FIGHTS ANYONE... THEN- HEY WAIT, SANS HOW DID YOU GET HERE BEFORE ME?"  
Sans grinned. "A flower told me.  
"So this must be your brother..." Toriel turned towards Papyrus. "Your brother has told me so much about you!"  
"WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE ASGORE'S CLONE KNOWS WHO I AM!"  
Before anyone could react, tough thin vines wrapped around everybody except Frisk. A flower popped out of the ground.  
"You idiots!" Flowey said. "Whilst you guys were having your little pow-wow. I took the humans souls!"  
"What, again?" Sans said.  
"Shut up!" Flowey turned to Frisk. "All of your friend's souls are going to be mine too! With their souls and the humans' together, I will achieve my real form."  
"Let's hope it's not as ugly as the last one" Sans cut in.  
"Will you stop that?" Flowey whirled frowning at Sans.  
More monsters poured into the room  
"We'll help!"  
"we're with you!"  
"Cmon you got this!"  
"You... You IDIOTS! ALL YOUR SOULS ARE MINE!" Flowey screamed.  
"Enough of this." Sans muttered. Bones appeared in between the vines and his body, loosening them. He fell to the floor.  
There was a flash of light, and everyone disappeared. Only Frisk, and a small goat-looking child remained.  
"Finally, I was so tired of being a flower." The goat child said. They turned towards Frisk. "Howdy! Chara, are you there? It's me your best friend."  
Frisk smirked. "Hi."  
"You are there, aren't you?" The goat child said. The was another flash of light. Sans looked around him. All he could see were whirling colours. Where the goat-child had been a large goat-monster was flying in the air swaying from side to side.  
"Sans help, help me, I can't do this." Frisk called out.  
"What?" Sans asked, not taking his eyes of the flying goat-monster. It winked and smiled.  
"If I fight I will die. I can't refuse. I can't reset or save."  
"How do you know about that? Stop playing games Frisk."  
"This isn't a game. Not anymore. Maybe it never was. Anyway, You have to do it. Save everybody, Sans!" Frisk said.  
The goat monster approached.  
"Asriel Dreamurr!" He declared with confidence. Guess that was his name.  
"Alright cut the crap Flowey" Sans said. A gasterblaster swung into view.  
"No! Sans! You'll kill your friends!" Frisk called out.  
Sans hadn't counted on that. The gaster blaster fizzled out as soon as it had appeared. An explosion of stars rained down upon him. He nonchalantly dodged them all.  
"What do you want?" Sans gritted his teeth.  
"I Want To Be Able To Play With Chara Forever." Asriel said in a warm chocolatey voice that seemed to echo from everywhere and nowhere.  
"Tough. You heard 'em. You kill them, they're dead. That's it." Sans said bluntly.  
Asriel laughed. "You can't kill Chara." He swung huge curved scimitars at Sans. Sans dodged them effortlessly.  
"You've got to SAVE them, Sans." Frisk called out.  
"Why are you helping him?" Asriel said shaking his head.  
Frisk gave an unnatural smile. "Conflict." They said flatly.

Sans felt warm inside, he reached out to Papyrus' soul with determination. Papyrus answered swiftly. There was no way he could forget his own brother.  
Asriel was stunned. "What's happening?"  
Sans reached out to all his other friends. It was easy. He'd known them and they'd known him for a very long time. Soon there was only one person left to save, the only one he didn't really know.  
"It's you. I have to save you, don't I?" Sans muttered. Asriel said nothing. Sans reached deep down into Asriel. Buried under years of hatred and boredom as a flower, he found an ember of emotion. A ghost of the soul he once had. It felt so lonely...  
"I'm so alone, Chara... I'm so afraid." Asriel said shutting his eyes. Tears began to roll down his face.  
"Asriel..." Sans said sadly reaching out.  
"I..." Asriel began... there was a final flash of light, and stood before Sans was the small goat-child looking up at him meekly, tears streaming down his face. "I'm so sorry." Asriel said.  
"It's okay" Sans smiled warmly at the crying child.  
"I can feel everyones soul inside me... Their compassion. They love you both so much. I wish I could tell you how everyone feels about you." Asriel said smiling.  
Sans felt his eyes began to well up. "No, really it's okay" He said.  
"I can't keep these souls inside of me. The least I can do is return them. But first.. There's something I have to do. With everyone's power, their determination, it's time for monsters to go free." Asriel said. He closed his eyes and slowly raised his hands. He gently floated into the air. Souls span out of his body weakening the barrier, until with a crash, it splintered and broke. Sans watched in disbelief. He stepped over the line where the barrier had been, and back again. He jumped back and forth over the line a few times.  
"It's gone!" Sans called out ecstatic.  
Frisk didn't answer. They were hugging and talking to Asriel. He seemed to be saying goodbye. Asriel took a few slow steps away from Frisk, before everything went black.

"Frisk, Sans, wake up." Toriel's voice called out concerned. Sans opened his eyes and got up. "Oh, you're both awake! Thank goodness!"  
Everyone began to talk to Frisk. Sans slumped against a wall exhausted. Toriel came over to him.  
"Are you okay, Sans? It's weird talking to you in person. At least I know your name now, you had me at an advantage earlier!" Toriel said  
Sans laughed "I'm fine, it's just... well you wouldn't believe me if I told you."  
"Try me" Toriel challenged  
"Well... let's just say I put in a lot of work for this happy ending. It's great to finally be here. I'm just glad it's done." Sans smiled.  
"One day you should make a story" Toriel nudged Sans.  
He laughed again. _No chance._ He thought whilst staring at his fingers and wiggling them. They were feeling kind of funny. Toriel stood up and began to talk to Frisk. Sans kept looking at his fingers. For a couple of seconds they seemed to shimmer and unform, before resolidifying. Sans made a fist and the feeling in his fingers went away. He looked at the crowd of happy faces surrounding Frisk. He thought back to the first world, where everyone was killed. It was hard to believe it had all lead to this. Yet somehow they had earned their happy ending.

After millenia trapped in the underground. They were finally free.


	3. Chapter 3

The warm light of the summer sun shone brightly on Sans' bones. A cool breeze whistled through his ribcage. He lay in a hammock between a tree and the side of a cottage where he and Papyrus now lived. Papyrus was delicately trimming a bush into a likeness of himself whilst Sans was reading a book about magic dogs Toriel had loaned him. It'd been eight months since they'd left the underground. Sans and Papyrus had got a place not far from Toriel and Frisk. Toriel set up a school. Frisk had been the first student there, but not long afterwards the school was intended by both human and monster children. Sans volunteered to help, at Toriel's suggestion, with liasons with the pupils' parents. She claimed Sans had a "knack for diplomacy" Though he figured she just had a wicked sense of humour. Either way he had settled nicely into his new life. Papyrus was happy too. He'd begun to build a name for himself motor racing professionally. Sans had never seen his brother so confident.

Undyne and Alphys moved into an apartment in the city. Last Sans had heard, Undyne was trying to figure out the "least wimpy" way to propose. He pictured Undyne shaking a spear with a ring on the end at Alphys screaming "WILL YOU MARRY ME!?" and laughed. Things seemed to be going pretty well for them. As opposed to Asgore. Everyone had heard little from him since they reached the surface. He told everyone he had a lot of thinking to do, and left to travel the world. He sends everyone a postcard now and then.

Things were even looking up for Napstablook. Their spooktunes had gathered a cult following online, and birthed a new genre. They'd never been so popular, though they rarely met their fans in real life.

Sans jumped down from his hammock. It was time to read the reports. He strolled round the back of the cottage and pulled a silver key out his pocket. Unlocking the door, he stepped inside a a clean brightly lit room. His broken machine lay in a corner under a sheet. He shuddered as it caught his eye. He opened the cabinet next to it. The timeline reporter was there, whirring away as it had done in his old secret room. He pressed the button, and the same familiar report came out.

"It's still linear" Sans said to himself. "It has the first timeline, and this one, all in a straight line... just like every other day." He screwed the report into a ball and threw it at an overflowing wastepaper bin. He didn't know whether to mad or glad. _No change certainly makes life easy_ , he thought.  
"SANS!" Papyrus called him "TORIEL IS ON THE PHONE SHE WANTS TO KNOW IF YOU'RE COMING TO SEE FRISK TONIGHT."  
"Tell her yes" Sans called back. He couldn't say no. The kid still creeped Sans out a little bit, but over time, He'd really come to love them.  
"HE SAYS YES" Papyrus shouted.  
"Papyrus..." Sans said. "Do you ever think it was too easy?"  
"DO I THINK WHAT WAS TOO EASY?" Papyrus said, hanging up the phone.  
"Breaking the barrier... Getting free."  
"YES. I THINK IT WAS TOTALLY TOO EASY! I MEAN YOU AND FRISK FAINTED AND BOOM! IT WAS GONE! IN A JIFFY! IT WAS QUITE SURPRISING!" Papyrus boomed.  
"Yeah. Thanks Papyrus" Sans smiled, but felt uneasy. That hadn't been the answer he was looking for.  
"ANYWAY. IF YOU GET IN THE CAR, I'LL TAKE YOU TO TORIEL'S. IT'S THE LEAST I COULD DO! IT MUST BE HARD NOT KNOWING ANY SHORTCUTS IN THE OVER WORLD!"  
Sans looked down, it wasn't in his brothers nature to be tactless, but he could be naive sometimes. "Okay, Papyrus." He said, hopping into the car.

Sans stared out the window. Beautiful green fields with colourful flowers passed by. When they'd first reached the surface it'd all overwhelmed him, but as the months went by it'd all got a bit samey.

"Are we there yet?" Sans called out  
"SANS!" Papyrus shouted. Sans laughed.

The surface had really brought the best out in his brother. Sans was happy for him. Although slightly envious, he found it hard to engage with the surface world. He wasn't sure there was a place for him here.  
"WE'RE THERE YET" Papyrus shouted calmly turning onto the driveway. They'd arrived at Toriel's house.

The house was a snug little place atop some cliffs overlooking the sea. It was a very serene setting. Toriel had really put her heart into it.

"Sans! Papyrus!" Toriel emerged from the house. "How are you did you have a safe journey?"  
Frisk ran past Toriel's leg over to Papyrus placing their hand lightly on his shin  
"Tag you're it!" Frisk said running off.  
"OH NO! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS... AM IT! THIS CANNOT DO AT ALL! NYEH HEH HEH, YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME!" Papyrus said before dashing after Frisk.  
Toriel turned to Sans. "How have you been?"  
"Heh, can't complain" Sans said trying to sound cheery.  
"You can talk to me, Sans." Toriel said. "Here will this help?" She went back inside the house and shut the door. "Talk to me."  
Sans giggled. "Well I guess it's just... Helping out at the school is great and everything but... I dunno, I just don't know what direction to take in life." Sans admitted. It was easier than he thought.  
"Yeah I know what you mean" Toriel replied sympathetically. "All our lives we've been stuck underground, and now we have the entire world all at once. It's quite daunting.  
"Yeah..."  
"What do you want to do?" Toriel asked.  
"Well, to be honest nothing, really. But that feels like kind of a waste"  
Toriel laughed. "Well you've plenty of time to do nothing, or to do anything if you choose. Look after yourself Sans" She said warmly.  
"Thanks" Sans said  
"THEY'RE TOO FAST FOR ME!" Papyrus rushed over and slapped Sans on the forehead. "TAG YOU'RE IT!"  
Sans sprang into action, he sprinted full pelt after Papyrus. "You never could outrun me!" Sans shouted  
"WE'LL SEE. NYEH HEH HEH" Papyrus said looking back at Sans... before running headfirst into a tree. "OW"

Not long later they were all inside. Papyrus had cooked spaghetti for everyone. He'd actually got fairly good at it after taking lessons from someone who wasn't Undyne.  
"Erm... can you two... put a bag down before you eat next time?" Toriel said.  
"What?" Sans looked down. There was spaghetti all over the seat and sauce dripping from his ribcage. "Oops".  
Frisk was laughing. Sans allowed himself to laugh with them. It'd been a long time since Frisk had done anything... creepy. Sans had begun to doubt whether they'd ever been creepy at all, but if they hadn't, then perhaps nothing back then happened at all... but if that were true, how did they get here now? Sans preferred not to think about it.  
After dinner Toriel went to help Papyrus with the washing up, leaving Sans to mind Frisk.  
"Hey kid" Sans said to Frisk.  
"Hey Sans" Frisk said back.  
"How's Toriel treating ya?" Sans said, trying to make conversation  
"Pretty good." Frisk said  
"And how are you treating Toriel?" Sans asked quietly.  
"Oh you know," Frisk smirked. "I've treated her worse."  
Sans' heart skipped a beat. "What?"  
Frisk looked away suddenly "Oh nothing, I just mean like last time I left her in the ruins, right?  
 _Damn, does that count? Or am I just looking for it too hard?_ Sans thought. He didn't reply.  
"SANS WE'RE GOING!" Papyrus called out. They'd finished washing up and it'd gotten quite late. Sans breathed a sigh of relief as she shuffled to the front door.  
"Well it's been nice seeing you" Sans said to Toriel.  
"You too, come again!" Sans and Papyrus stepped outside and the door closed behind them.  
"Papyrus," Sans said as they walked to the car "Does Frisk ever... act really weird around you? Say things they shouldn't?"  
"WHAT DID YOU HEAR?" Papyrus snapped back immediately.  
"Erm nothing, they just say things that creep me out sometimes."  
"IF THEY EVER SAY ANY RUDE WORDS IT DEFINITELY WASN'T UNDYNE THAT TAUGHT THEM." Papyrus said quickly.  
"sure thing buddy." Sans replied getting into the car. Even if they had said anything odd around his brother he probably wouldn't have noticed.

Back at home, Sans leafed disinterestedly through his magic dogs book. He just couldn't get into it. His minor freakout with Frisk earlier had really unsettled him. He couldn't talk about with anyone either, when he'd tried with his brother, it was clear Papyrus had no idea. He couldn't even talk about it with Toriel. He began to wonder whether he could still reset. He'd stopped thinking about it a long time ago... it didn't seem worth the risk. Suddenly, something he overlooked hit him. That little flower! They had to know more. But they were still in the underground, soulless once more. Nevertheless, the idea of talking to someone even without a soul who knew about the resets was attractive. Sans had a terrible idea.  
"But first." He said aloud "Some sleep."

The next day, Sans was up bright and early.  
"Morning Papyrus!"  
"GOOD MORNING SANS! DID YOU SLEEP WELL?"  
"Like a baby, can you take me up to mt Ebott?" Sans asked quickly.  
Papyrus was struck dumb. "WHY?"  
Sans thought quick. "Oh it's just what you said the other day... about not knowing any shortcuts. I miss em. Just fancied a wander about the underground."  
"I'M SORRY SANS I DIDN'T MEAN TO BE TACTLESS." Papyrus looked hurt. He didn't like to upset people. "I'LL TAKE YOU TO MT EBOTT"

The car journey was short and quiet. Sans asked Papyrus to pick him up later. He approached a large dark hole... the entrance Frisk had come through. He took a deep breath and jumped. Then everything went black.

"Howdy!" A voice called out. Everything was dark. Sans opened his eyes a crack and his vision was flooded with light.  
"H-hey" He coughed. He eyes began to adjust. Light streamed from the ceiling across a bed of yellow flowers, one which was looking at him intently.  
"I never thought I'd see you again. What are you doing here?" Flowey asked.  
"I thought you could use some company" Sans said grinning. "You remember the resets right?"  
"What, are you thinking of resetting? Your happy ending not what you wanted so you're gonna go back and play with your friend's lives and future? Perhaps we're not so different." Flowey said with a wicked smirk.  
Sans laughed. "Not on your life, buddy."  
Flowey looked disappointed. "Then why are you here?" He demanded.  
"I dunno, I guess i thought it'd be nice to talk to someone else who remembers what happened" Sans admitted.  
"Ha! You come seeking solace? Burden too hard to bear? You're PATHETIC!" Flowey spat.  
Sans was sitting in his former prison talking to a flower. He found it hard to disagree. "Listen about Frisk." He said. "Did they ever act... weird?"  
"What do you mean?" Flowey asked.  
"Did they ever say things they shouldn't, or know things they shouldn't?" Sans said.  
"Huh... they USED TO. Before YOU got involved." Flowey said derisively. "Me and Chara would be the only ones to remember everything. You changed that."  
"Who's Chara?" Sans asked.  
Flowey looked away edgily. "They are."  
"What?" Sans said. That didn't make any sense.  
"They were like a sibling to me. We could have played with the world forever... You stopped all that." Flowey said venomously.  
"I don't think they're gone. I think they're still inside Frisk." Sans said firmly.  
"If they're still around, they'd still be playing with the world, and they're not are they?" Flowey said. "don't come to me waving false hopes of my dead best friends again. As far as I care, YOU killed them."  
"Heh, well if that's how you feel" Sans got up and walked away. He'd had enough of Flowey.


	4. Chapter 3 and a half

Howdy Chara!

You've been waiting a while, haven't you? I wonder what it is you're waiting for.

You sadist.

He thinks he's figured me out. He has NO IDEA. Hahahaha! Things are seeming a little peaceful, huh? Perhaps this could be

the end in another world?

But where's the fun in that? There's no fun without suffering. You think this will have a happy ending?

You're wrong. That's not what you want. You're like me, aren't you Chara? You want to be entertained.

Well, see you around. Heeheehee.


End file.
